In this review, we take a look at the remarkable C-V8, the car
which represented the
pinnacle of the Jensen brothers thirty-year involvement in
the motor industry. Arguably,
it was the last of the true Jensens because it was the final
model in a long line designed
and built under the personal direction of Mr. Richard and Mr.
Alan. Both washed their
hands of the C-V8s successor before leaving Jensen Motors
in 1966.

Before the word supercar had even been coined, the
C-V8 was one. Powered by the
305 bhp Chrysler 361 ci V8 at first, and later by the 330 bhp 383,
it was one of the most
potent automobiles of its era  with handling, comfort,
luxury and safety to match.

The shape which clothed Jensenss first V8 chassis in
thirty years was designed by the
Jensen brothers and their Chief Body Engineer, Eric Neale.
Originally it was to have been
called the 541 CT, or 541 Mk II, apparently to build on the
lineage of the Jensen 541
models made since 1955. But somewhere along the line the term
C-V8 was invented,
apparently for Centre-Tube chassis, V8.

The fortunate few who came into contact with the C-V8 were
literally amazed by its
performance, although opinion was somewhat divided on its styling.
Perhaps the kindest
comment came from a reviewer who described the C-V8 as a gigantic,
crouching four-eyed cat, and a pretty cool cat at that, to use his
language. It was, of course, the slanted headlight treatment which most attracted or offended the eye. The
recessed light pods
were supposed to have been finished off with perspex covers but
these were deleted late
in the design process when it was too late to change the shape of
the wings.

Introduced at Earls Court in October 1962, the 361 ci C-V8
with its TorqueFlite column
auto was a smash hit. Yet, even as the first production examples
were reaching buyers in
early 1963, the factory was working on an improved version. In
October that year, the
Mk II made its debut, featuring some minor body modifications and
the promise of more
to come. During the Mk II model run, which ended in July 1965, a
LHD version was introduced, as was a manual gearbox option for the RHD cars.
Significantly too, the engine was
uprated to the excellent 383 ci unit, used in all subsequent
Jensen models until 1972.

In mid 1965 came the last version of the C-V8  the Mk
III  featuring a redesigned
front end with lower scuttle and deeper windscreen, a slightly
shorter body, much improved
ventilation, a beautiful veneered dashboard and split braking
circuits. Among the minor
changes, new bumpers with overriders were fitted, the headlight
arrangement was altered and
the headlight pods lost their chrome surrounds. Jensens used the
services of a team of racing
drivers, including Roy Salvadori, to take the Commanders Cup at
Snetterton race course
(a trophy for 24-hour endurance events) with an experimental C-V8
manual just prior to
the launch of the Mk III.

And here is that very car, the
1965 Snetterton C-V8 III, chassis JM/EXP/109, manual gearbox and
all.
Still a regular flying machine, I believe. Pictured against a
backdrop of more mundane transport at the
annual Cropredy Bridge Garage Open Day, 21 April 2001. Thanks Bob
and Sue! My pic.

The Mk IIIs were certainly the most developed and luxurious of
the C-V8 line. They
remained in production until mid-1966, the last of them going out
in December of that
year, soon after the introduction of the steel-bodied Interceptor.

Including the prototypes, 500 C-V8s appear to have been built.
The Mk IIs are the
commonest  the Mk Is the rarest. The numbers built, and the
periods they were in
production, were as follows:

C-V8 MARK

PRODUCTION DATES

NUMBER BUILT

Mk I

November 1962  November 1963

69

Mk II

October 1963  July 1965

250

Mk III

June 1965  December 1966

181

TOTAL

November 1962  December
1966

500

Several series designators distinguish the different types of
C-V8s. The 104 series is the only confusing one because a 104-series car can be either a Mk I
or II, and the Mk IIs
can have either a 361 or a 383 ci engine. In detail, the numbers
built were as follows:

SERIES

MARK

ENGINE

DRIVE

GEARBOX

BUILT

104

Mk I

361 ci

RHD

Automatic

69

104

Mk II

361/383 ci

RHD

Automatic

232

105

Mk II

361 ci

RHD

Manual

7

106

Mk II

361/383 ci

LHD

Automatic

8

112

Mk III

383 ci

RHD

Automatic

176

113

Mk III

383 ci

RHD

Manual

2

114

Mk III

383 ci

LHD

Automatic

2

EXP

All

361/383 ci

Either

Either

4

TOTAL

500

In all, Jensens seem to have built seven experimental C-V8s of
which the first three were
either scrapped or renumbered as ordinary series production cars.
The other four were
allowed to leave the factory wearing their experimental chassis
number tags.

Engine-wise, the cars were stock standard. Jensens undertook
no modifications to the
motors other than to spray them black over the original Chrysler
Turquoise or Orange.
In all, 128 cars received the 361 ci engine (all but one being S
series, the other being an
R series), and 372 had the 383 ci motor (either V or A series
units).

Production peaked in 1964 when Jensens were finishing an
average of three a week. Of
course, no manufacturer could survive on such a limited
production and for Jensens the
continuing profitability lay in the outside contracting work.
During the years of the C-V8,
this involved the Volvo P1800, the Austin Healey 3000 and the
Sunbeam Tiger. The
annual production of C-V8s was minuscule by comparison with the
outputs on those.

YEAR OF BUILD

NUMBER BUILT

1961

2

1962

2

1963

100

1964

155

1965

134

1966

107

TOTAL

500

C-V8s were very British cars and the few which went abroad
were generally delivered to
special order. Several LHDs were built for the United States but
the arrangements with
dealers there were not satisfactory, and the export pitch can be
said to have been only a
half-hearted one. The C-V8 sent to Turin in 1966 for rebodying as
the first of the steel
Interceptors was originally a LHD Mk II taken back from a New
York dealer who had
been unable to sell it. Deliveries by country were as follows:

COUNTRY

NUMBER

COUNTRY

NUMBER

Mainland UK

476

Canada

1

Ireland (inc. NI)

7

Channel Islands

1

USA

5

West Germany

1

Switzerland

3

Sierra Leone

1

Spain

2

New Zealand

1

Australia

2

TOTAL

500

The manual gearbox was an interesting, if unpopular, option on
C-V8s. All of the manuals
were built in RHD and most of them were Mk IIs with the 361 ci
engine. The manual setup, when tested by reviewers, was considered a bit too heavy in
the box and clutch for
pleasurable motoring whereas the column shift TorqueFlite was a
revelation to most testers,
many of whom raved about it. The manual gearbox used by Jensens,
the A-833, had been
introduced by Chrysler in 1964 and was designed to withstand the
worst stresses which
a race-tuned 426 Hemi could throw at it. Behind the standard 361
it looked a bit overengineered and few buyers wanted to pay an extra £100 for the
dubious pleasure of doing battle with the heavy clutch and shifter. The main drawback of
the A-833 was that, as
engine revs increased, so did the effort needed to operate the
clutch. This made the car
tolerable at normal speeds but a real handful if driven in anger.
The kindest of the reviewers
who tried it on the Goodwood race circuit in 1965 described it as
a real he-mans car.

As with the manuals, most of the LHD C-V8s were built in the
Mk II range, all but one
of them with the 383 engine. They achieved little success
overseas because they were little known. It would not be until the release of the Federalized
Interceptor II in 1970 that Jensen
cars began to be exported in quantity.

C-V8s were painted mostly in sombre colours, although as usual
the customer could have
anything within reason, for a few pounds more. Two of the cars
were done in a striking
scheme first seen on the 541R with the body painted Pastel Pink,
the roof Dusk Rose and
the interior trimmed in Mushroom. In keeping with Jensen
tradition, C-V8s were supposed
to impress with their dignity, the promise of that exhilarating
power lurking discreetly
underneath. Loud colour schemes just wouldnt have been
right and so less ostentatious
blues, greens, greys, whites and reds were the norm. The full
colour table looks like so:

COLOUR

MADE

COLOUR

MADE

COLOUR

MADE

Princess Grey

100

Off White

13

Dawn Blue

1

Indigo Blue

71

Peony Red

12

Fawn

1

Botticelli Blue

69

Black

8

Metallic Grey

1

Regal Red

67

Spa White

5

Sherwood Green

1

Deep Carriage Green

54

Special White

4

Autumn Gold

1

Oyster Grey

31

Carmine

2

Cadogan Brown

1

Sun Bronze

23

Met. Quartz Blue

2

Unspecified

1

California Sage

15

Pastel Pink

2

Smoke Green

14

Reno Red

1

TOTAL

500

In keeping with the conservative look, the choice of trimming
boiled down to just a few
main options, although again anything was possible if the
customer so desired. Beige was
the commonest trim material followed by a very luxurious Bright
Red, then Blue-Grey,
Black, Mushroom, Dark Red and Green. Hardy Amies was contracted
to trim two cars
in pigskin to a design of his own choosing and, although he was
successful in this, his
design was not adopted for production. Nevertheless, he kept one
for himself for many
years. The trim table looks like so:

TRIM COLOUR

MADE

TRIM COLOUR

MADE

Beige

93

Tan

4

Bright Red

81

Light Tan

3

Blue-Grey

76

Red (unspecified)

2

Black

73

Dark Blue

1

Mushroom

54

Powder Blue

1

Dark Red

39

Blue

1

Green

28

Brown

1

Light Mushroom

18

Cerise

1

Bentley Grey

16

Unspecified

3

Grey (unspecified)

5

TOTAL

500

Several C-V8s were built specifically for the Jensen brothers
as personal transport. Richard
Jensen seemed particularly fond of the type, having in turn a
Princess Grey Mk I, a Princess
Grey Mk II, an Oyster Grey Mk III and finally an Indigo Blue Mk
III which was presented
to him on his retirement from the company late in 1966. The
organizers had apparently
forgotten Richards preference for grey-painted cars but
there is no truth to the story that HEA 5D had to be resprayed before he would accept it. It was
resprayed, but much later
on  and only after its troublesome Indigo Blue paint had
failed! For Alan Jensen, the
factory built only the one C-V8, a Mk II painted Smoke Green.

Most who bought C-V8s were company types, generally chairmen
and the like. A few
minor celebrities bought them but for the price of the driving
ticket you needed to be pretty
wealthy. The cars cost around £3800 on release in 1962, though
the rates of tax came
down the following year and those who waited got one for only
£3300. By the end of
the model run in 1966, costs had pushed the price up again to
around £3700. By comparison,
you could have had a 3.4 litre Jaguar Mk II with overdrive for
only £1500. In the United
States, you were looking at paying around twice the price of the
best Corvette money could
buy, which perhaps explains why only five C-V8s are known to have
gone there new (and
one of those did not sell).

Publicity for the C-V8 was handled in a low-key way by Tony
Goods London-based firm,
Good Relations. The most notable publicity afforded the C-V8,
however, came with the
loan of a Mk II to the producers of The Baron, a British
television drama series starring
American actor Steve Forrest as antique dealer John Mannering,
known by the nickname
of the Baron. By the standards of 1965, the series was a fine
example of the spy genre and was
well received. Most of the 26 episodes displayed the C-V8 to
great effect and are well
worth a nostalgic look. And if the early series of Minder
comes back, watch for an
episode entitled The Car Lot Baggers  it
features a C-V8 driven by a gypsy!

Like most Jensens, the C-V8 has no competition pedigree but it
acquitted itself well enough
when called upon to do so. At the annual Brighton Speed Trials in
1965, C-V8s took first
and second place in their class, beating off 10 Jaguars in the
process, which was certainly
one in the eye for Sir William Lyons (the crouching cat beats the
leaping cat!). The two
C-V8s involved, an automatic 383 and a manual 361 driven by long-time
Jensen enthusiast
Lord Strathcarron, ran the bumpy standing kilometre in 28 seconds.

The only Convertible C-V8 turned out to be a disaster for the
factory and for Lord Carrington,
who bought it. He had trouble with hood leaks and lots of other
things and his complaints
strained relations between the factory and their London dealers,
Folletts, who sold him the car.
Carrington traded it in on an Interceptor as soon as they became
available in 1966. Another
unusual C-V8 was the unique Sedanca de Ville, a specially bodied
Mk I with a folding roof
section above the front seats. Both of these special cars survive
in roadworthy condition.

Shortly before the Jensen brothers departed the scene, the C-V8
was chosen to showcase
the Ferguson four-wheel drive system, a project dear to Richard
Jensens heart. The prototype was mobile by 1965 but only one was built before a decision
was taken to dispense
with fibreglass and body the production cars in Italian steel.
The C-V8 FF prototype was
certified as broken up in 1966.

Of the 500 C-V8s built, many are still in existence, their
fibreglass bodies and solid chassis
seemingly having defied that great leveller of all things
automotive, the British weather. The
value of used C-V8s plummeted in the late 1960s and 70s,
particularly as large numbers
of the infinitely more appealing Interceptors (to drivers of the
time, that is) were on the
market. For a time, C-V8s were hardly thought of as worth saving,
although the factory
ran a couple of them as service department loan cars.

Today, C-V8s are rare cars much prized by their owners. Some
have had expensive
restorations lavished on them while others continue to serve
faithfully as everyday transport,
just as their designers intended. Mechanically, they are well
supported by Mopar with both
Performance Parts and regular parts for engines and drivetrains.
Many body components
are available through specialist suppliers in England.

At the 2000 Motor Show at the NEC in England, the
reconstituted Jensen Motors unveiled
a prototype Ford V8-powered coupé which they dubbed the C-V8,
complementing the
S-V8 roadster prototype shown in 1998. Unfortunately the venture collapsed and
the prototype was disposed of in the liquidation of assets.

If you want to bone up on the C-V8s in general, do some research of your own.

The first edition of this article
was prepared in 1993 for publication in
the Australian Jensen club magazine. It was revised for
republication
in other club magazines around the world during the 1990s. This
text is an update prepared in line with information available in
2000.